Category: Bizarre

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Monuments of bone

Humans have a fascination with the remains of our ancestors. There are many examples in the Museum of ways that artifacts have been preserved for religious, magical, and historical purposes. Some of our items have come with a little extra, such us Emily, the skeleton which arrived with a ghost who haunts the Museum.

Of course, by some standards our collection is ridiculously tame. Here is a fascinating panoramic view of a bizarre chapel in Czermna, Poland, constructed with human skulls and bones. Move your mouse around in the picture to look all around.

You can read more about this fascinating monument in this article from the Smithsonian Institute.

There is also the Seldec Ossuary, also known as “the Kutna Hora bone church.” This video tour shows how human bones have been used to create chandeliers and other things in the monastery.

Are these the vestiges of superstition, throwbacks to a time when we looked for souls in a sneeze? Are they respect for the vast number of lives who have come before us? Are they just weird art?

Come to the Museum of the Weird and experience our mummies, skeletal items, and other bizarre examples of how people have kept the dead near by. See some other examples of bone monuments in this article by Mental Floss.

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Islands of furry fun…or terror!

Japan is a wonderfully weird place. Just the other day we shared how  Godzilla received Japanese citizenship. A while back we shared information about the mysterious Suicide Forest, where hundreds of individuals go to end their life.

Now we have a couple of other bizarre things to share: two islands.

The first is Aoshima (青島), which has gained the name Cat Island (キャット島 Kyattoshima). Located in Ehime Prefecture, Japan, it is a place where there are approximately 6 cats for every 1 human. (Did you know we sell the Crazy Cat Lady game at the Lucky Lizard?) Only about a mile long, cats first arrived on ship and reproduced unchecked. Even if you’re a cat person it’s a little eerie. See the video.

Meanwhile, the island of Ōkunoshima (大久野島) has gained the title Usagi Jima (うさぎ島, “Rabbit Island”) because of a large population of feral rabbits. They are not afraid of humans, as you can see in this video.

Too much of a good thing? Are there other mysteriously populated islands that we should know about? Share it with us and we may feature it (and you) on a future blog.

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Don’t know what this says about the marriage

Forget the controversy about whether or not to wear white to a wedding. These people are deciding between quilted an extra-absorbent. It’s an contest sponsored by Charmin (as in “don’t squeeze the”) where dress designers create a wedding gown out of toilette paper. Why? Who knows? They’ve been doing it for 11 years.

A model walks the runway wearing ‘Garden Party’ a design by Carol Touchstone during the 11th annual toilet paper wedding dress contest at Kleinfled’s Bridal Boutique in New York June 17, 2015. [Reuters/Brendan McDermid]
 The winner was Donna Pope Vincler. Her gown is pictured here.

A woman wearing a white gown with a veil and tophat
The winning dress in Charmin’s 11th annual toilette paper wedding dress contest.

Alright, yes, it’s very fetching. Not many people can pull off wearing toilette paper like that. Most people just use it as an occasional shoe accessory. Of course, this is probably no weirder than the annual duct tape tuxedo contest, where students can win scholarship for showing pictures of prom wear they’ve created with duct tape. Though, if I have to pick my skill for the zombie apocalypse, I think I’d rather be a duct-tape wizard than a toilette paper princess.

Oh, well! It’s art! Have you ever made something weird like this? Tell us about it! Maybe we’ll feature your strange creation.

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Godzilla receives Japanese citizenship

We love that the Japanese are weird. The give us the best game shows and the most disturbing horror. We’re not sure what to think about this one, though.

Photo of Godzilla receiving an award sash
Shizuo Kambayashi—AP
Godzilla receives a sash of “Shinjuku-ward tourism ambassador” from the Kabuki-cho Shopping Area Promotion Association Chief Director Mototsugu Katagiri of Tokyo’s Shinjuku-ward during its awards ceremony in Tokyo, April 9, 2015.

Japan has granted Godzilla full citizenship. For years, Godzilla has risen from the depths and laid Tokyo in ruins. True, he only did it on his own a few times and was often defending them from other monsters, but still, he’s done a lot of damage over the years. Perhaps granting him citizenship means he’ll be able to pay some of that back in taxes.

Of course, this brings up some important questions. What about all of the other monsters? How many monsters who have thrilled and frightened us over the years are left without any support at all? At the Museum of the Weird we have to keep King Kong hidden away upstairs! Many others are of unknown status. Will the United States finally bring reform that lets the monsters we love call this country their home? Time will tell, but we look for a time when there is equality for all monsters.

You can enjoy our collection of monsters at our sister store, Sfanthor. Get a super pass and enjoy both sites for one great price!

unversal_monsters-citizenship

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Do you take this corpse…

By greyloch from Washington, DC, area, U.S.A. (The Corpse Bride) [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons
In Tim Burton’s film, Corpse Bride, Victor Van Dort finds himself unwittingly married to a woman who has been dead for years. Weird fantasy stuff, eh? Not necessarily. The practice of marrying the dead is quite real and more common than you might think.

Called posthumous marriage, the practice of marrying the deceased is legal in France, with similar customs in India, Sudan and China. In France, the custom dates back to World War I, where a few women were married by proxy to soldiers who had died a few weeks earlier. The living party must be able to demonstrate that there was clear intention for the couple to be married. The Guardian reports a posthumous wedding in France as late as 2009.

It’s not just women. The Daily Mail reports the wedding of Thai TV producer, Chadil Deffy, who married his girlfriend, killed in a car accident.

These stories are touching and heart-wrenching all at once. Such a ceremony could provide closure to someone who has been left behind, completing an important part of life that would otherwise have been left unfinished. Of course, it might go deeper. In my travels I had a fascinating conversation with a widow who told me she was still in regular contact with her husband’s spirit who stayed around her house and continued to participate in her life.

Posthumous marriage is not recognized in the United States, though there are cases where people have tried it anyway. Kirsten Smolensky examines Rights of the Dead in the Hofstra Law Review.

Have you been to a strange wedding? Share it with us.

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What is that in the sky?!

Imagine driving down the road and you see this up ahead.

640px-Saucer_cloud_over_Campbell_Mesa,_AZ
By Brady Smith; Coconino National Forest [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons
You might feel that we were being invaded, but what you see is an unusual formation called a “lenticular cloud.” These clouds form in situations where some sort of large object (like a mountain or a building) disturbs the air flow and creates an eddie of air. When the conditions are right, clouds form in these eddies and take on a bizarre saucer shape that looks like something from the film, Independence Day.

These weird clouds may account for some UFO reports. Here are some more amazing examples.

512px-Lenticular_clouds_and_Mount_Hotaka_from_Mount_Otensho_1994-06-25
Lenticular clouds and Mount Hotaka from Mount Otensho 1994-06-25
By Alpsdake (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
New-Mexico-Lenticular
By Brandy Jenkins [GFDL, CC-BY-SA-3.0 or CC BY 2.5], via Wikimedia Commons
Lenticular Clouds over Cagliari
Lenticular Clouds over Cagliari
By fdecomite [CC BY 2.0]
 Of course, not all reports can be explained by clouds. Soon we’ll examine some of the more detailed reports and the organization that constantly tracks and investigates them.

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Most interesting ways to die

Every state in the U.S. has it’s own claim to fame. Iowa has the lowest divorce rate and Maine has the least violent crime. Idaho is a cheap place to buy groceries. Arizona prides itself on being the sunniest state.  Rhode Island had the lowest energy consumption per capita while Texas has the most wind energy.

Of course, none of them talk about what’s really important. What are their most distinctive ways to die? The biggest killers in the United States are still heart disease and cancer. But it seems that some more unusual causes of death are actually much more typical in certain states compared with the nation as a whole. Tuberculosis in Texas? Plane and boat accidents are problems in Alaska and Idaho! Legal intervention, deaths caused by law enforcement officers, excluding legal executions, seem to be the most distinctive cause of death in New Mexico, Nevada and Oregon.

Remember, these are just statistical anomalies. It doesn’t mean that people are falling over from the flu in Wyoming. But, if you’re looking for just the right way to steer people away from an ugly political discussion, these facts may be the perfect icebreaker. You’ll thank me later.

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Strange new creatures

Photo by NBC News

In 1995, divers discovered bizarre configurations about 6 feet in diameter off the coast of Japan’s Amami-Oshima Island. They resembled crop circles. Were these underwater aliens?

The answer turned out to be a newly classified pufferfish, Torquigener albomaculosus. The “Crop Circle Fish” was among many species that received scientific names over the last year. The International Institute for Species Exploration has listed their their top 10 of nearly 18,000 newly named species.

These obscure creatures may be hidden away in environments that are not populated by people, such as the strange creatures we are discovering deep beneath the ocean. Others are known locally, but only recently noticed by the scientific community. Here are the other nine recognized on this “top 10” list:

  • Anzu wyliei, also known as “the Chicken From Hell,” is a 10-foot-tall birdlike dinosaur which lived around 66 million years ago in the Dakotas.
  • The Balanophora coralliformis is a parasitic plant found only on the southwestern slopes of Mount Mingan in the Philippines. It has a unique, coral-like appearance because of branches of above-ground tubers which have a coarse texture.
  • The bizarre Cebrennus rechenbergi, or cartwheeling spider, uses a strange flipping motion to propel itself over the sands of Morocco.
  • Dendrogramma enigmatica are multicellular animals resembling mushrooms. Not only a new species, they may represent an entirely new phylum!
  • The so-called Bone-house wasp, Deuteragenia ossarium, from southeast China, uses corpses of ants to ward off predators by stuffing them into crevices on the outside of the nest.
  • The Limnonectes larvaepartus is a fanged frog from Sulawesi Island, Indonesia, that gives live birth to tadpoles that are deposited into pools of water. Other species hatch from eggs.
  • The Phryganistria tamdaoensis, discovered in Vietnam, is the world’s second longest insect.
  • A Sea Slug, Phyllodesmium acanthorhinum, is a particularly beautiful variety that might be a sort of “missing link” in the sea slug world.
  • A Mexican plant had been used for years in “nacimientos,” or altar scenes depicting the birth of Christ, by villagers in Sierra de Tepoztlán, Tlayacapan, San José de los Laureles, and Tepoztlán.  It turned out to be a species of Bromeliad previously unknown to science. It’s been dubbed Tillandsia religiosa.

These are only ten from thousands of newly classified species. As we continue to seek perhaps we’ll finally be giving scientific names to some of the legendary creatures such as Bigfoot that have eluded and fascinated seekers for centuries.

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The Prehistoric Guinea Pig was Over 1.5 Meters Big, and Probably Hung Out With Dinosaurs.

I grew up with a guinea pig, and they are some of the cuddliest, sweetest little buggers ever. However, two to four million years ago, they weren’t quite house pets.

Josephoartigasia monesi (or “Big Rodent”), the cousin species to the guinea pig, existed in prehistoric times and was about the size of a bull. They had tusks they could use to bite with the same force as a tiger fueled up on RedBull. 

Artist Painting based on Scientific Research.

 

They were vegetarians, but their teeth-tusks were used to help fight off predators and burrow and build shelter, amongst many other advantages this creature had with its tusks.

We can all look in awe as paleontologist continue to research more on this fine creature, and hope it never returns to the modern era, so we can avoid this…

1211

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UPDATE: The Creature From The Tuna Can Is More Horrifying Than You Could Ever Imagine!

louseRemember a few days ago when we learned about the scary creature that turned us all into vegetarians (or at least tuna brand snobs)? Well, scientist have looked into it, and it turns out this creature is far more terrifying than any of us could have come up with.

Stuart Hine, a veteran from the Natural History Museum in London said that this thing was a Cymotha Exigua, otherwise known as the “tongue-eating louse”.

I’m sure you can deduct how it got its nickname, but let me further explain so you can rest assured you won’t sleep tonight. This parasite enters the fish through its gills, then lives inside of it, attaches itself to the tongue, then slowly eats away at the tongue until it becomes the whole tongue, Xenomorph style.

The UK tuna company is looking into quality control to keep all Xenomorph monsters out of their tuna can, and apologize for scaring half the world to death.